Hey all,
I’m currently doing the 32 week off season plan. I started way back in November of 2020 but I got covid in January and took off about 3 months to fully recover. Since I really didn’t have an A race planned, I started back with sweet spot 1 based on Lacey’s recommendation and just started sweet spot 2 in the plan yesterday. I’m doing the advanced level, so lots of time in saddle.
My question is, I have a 3 hour xc mountain bike race this Saturday and am curious what I should be doing this week for workouts. Should I continue on with my sweet spot rides and make the Saturday race my “group ride?” The plan calls for a 2 hour endurance ride on Thursday ~ 55 tss, so I’m thinking just roll with the plan and I should be fine by Saturday, as long as I follow the food plan this week.
Or should I adjust what I’m doing this week to ensure I’m not too tired to race Saturday?
Also, Friday is my day off in the plan but I’ll be at the race venue setting up my camper and will most likely preride the 9 mile course at a very light level so I don’t kill my legs for Saturday.
Hey Mike! I would follow your plan as is except take thursday off and do your leg openers (1 hr) on the course friday. That should set you up well for the race.
As instructed I skipped my workout on Thursday and pre-rode the course on Friday in light zone 1 heartrate. Glad I did because this course was new to me and had a few trouble spots.
It ended up being much hotter than expected, and I realized that the majority of my SS1 phase had been done on the trainer and I wasn’t as acclimated to the heat as I thought. It was 89 most of the day.
I ended up finishing 3rd, 36 seconds behind 2nd place. As mentioned, this is a new course to me so I don’t have any previous data to compare but I felt like I did pretty good considering.
My legs did feel good and I am glad I took Thursday off. I did feel like I could have moved my Thursday ride to Wednesday and actually skip the hard workout on Wednesday instead. May try that next time if things line up that way again.
